This week, Jeff and Trevor return from the wilderness with tales of Oregon, AI disco bangers, bear attacks, workplace shorts, maruhara, tokuryu, and Saitama crimes so dumb they may qualify as performance art. It’s Japan news, expat brain damage, and podcast self-sabotage — all lovingly sealed inside one neon-lit convenience-store parking lot. Oh, and…

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Saitama / Crime Stories

• 偽の覆面パトカーで飲酒運転か＝危険運転致傷容疑で男逮捕―事故起こし発覚・警視庁
• 偽の覆面パトカーで重傷事故｜飲酒危険運転疑い男逮捕、警視庁
• コンビニ強盗、容疑の男逮捕

Tokuryu / New Organized Crime

• 令和6年版 警察白書 特集：匿名・流動型犯罪グループ (NPA)
• 警視庁 匿名・流動型犯罪グループ対策本部
• 匿名・流動型犯罪グループ対策 (gov-online)
• As Japan’s yakuza weakens, police focus shifts to loosely organized crime groups (AP)
• Tokuryū, the shadowy criminal groups taking over from yakuza in Japan (Guardian)
• Evolving tokuryu gang groups test Japan’s policing strategy (Japan Times)

Bear Attacks in Japan

• クマに関する各種情報・取組 (環境省)
• クマ類による人身被害について（速報値）(環境省 PDF)
• クマ出没件数、25年度は5万件突破 (nippon.com)
• A bear injures 4 people in a residential area of Japan as attacks rise (AP)
• ‘Extremely intelligent’ Japanese bear that attacked four people still at large (Guardian)
• Japan launches bear hunt after unusually bold attacks in Fukushima (Times)

Cool Biz / Shorts at Work

• 令和８年度クールビズについて (環境省)
• Tokyo workers encouraged to wear shorts to cut energy costs (Guardian)
• Tokyo wants you to wear shorts to work. Say no. (Japan Times)
• Tokyo orders office workers to wear shorts to keep cool (Times)

Maruhara / Punctuation Harassment

• Japanese punctuation mark becomes latest symbol of workplace harassment (Japan Times)
• 「マルハラ」って何？ (毎日新聞)

Manga / Anime Piracy Crackdown

• The Great Japanese Piracy Conspiracy (Japanlysis) 
• One of the biggest manga piracy networks has been shut down (Verge)
• Japan looks to AI in crusade against manga piracy (Times)

Unspoken Rules

• Every Unspoken Japanese Rule You Need to Know (Japanalysis)

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Finally, if you enjoyed the musical outro and want more Deep in Japan-adjacent sonic nonsense, check our SUNO profiles: 

• Trevor’s SUNO page
• Jeff’s SUNO page

Thanks for listening!